After the Pa. Special House win for Democrat Lamb?…Talk of a ‘Tsunami’ …Not ‘Wave’…

The Post’s Dan Balz writes: “There is no way for Republicans to sugarcoat what happened in southwestern Pennsylvania on Tuesday. It’s true that campaigns and candidates matter, but fundamentals often matter more. That’s why Republicans should be nervous about November.” At least outwardly, Republicans were well into the spin cycle.

Conor Lamb is a Republican-lite! No, he’s pro-choice, pro-Obamacare, pro-universal background checks, pro-union and anti-Trump tax plan. (If that makes him a “Republican-lite,” the GOP better bag all the ads accusing Democrats of being one step removed from socialists. You cannot be both a pawn of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a “Republican-lite” candidate.) Bellyaching that their opponent sounded moderate seems like a weird strategy for Republicans, frankly.

Our guy was a rotten candidate! Yes, but any plain-wrap Republican should have won a district tilted this heavily Republican. (“The Cook [Political Report] analysis rates each district along an ideological scale. The Pennsylvania district showed a Republican lean of plus-11. More than 100 districts nationwide are roughly equal to or far less Republican in their ideological leanings.”)….

Before Tuesday’s special election in Pennsylvania, most signs pointed to a Democratic wave in the upcoming midterm elections. But after Democrat Conor Lamb scored a razor-thin congressional victory in the heart of Trump Country, there’s a creeping consensus that the wave could become a tsunami.

The political spin doctors were out in full force Wednesday, as Republicans licked their wounds from an embarrassing loss and Democrats bellowed with confidence after winning a Pennsylvania district that Donald Trump took by 20 points in 2016.

Each side tried to parse what the results could mean for the midterm elections in November, when Democrats will attempt to wrest control of the House of Representatives from Republicans amid a growing backlash against the president.

In an ominous sign for the GOP, there are 114 districts currently held by Republicans where Trump’s margin of victory was smaller than in the Pennsylvania district won by Lamb Tuesday.

“The ground that Republicans are standing on is incredibly shaky, and we saw that last night,” said Douglas Heye, former communications director of the Republican National Committee. “The signs are pointing to a very bad November.”….